A Study On The Narration Of Chinese Feminist Films In The New Century

In this paper,Chinese feminist film since the new century was selected as the main research objective,using domestic and foreign feminism and theories related to the time,space,function and communication process of film narrative,the narrative of Chinese feminist film in the new century was analyzed.This thesis is composed of 5 Chapters,apart from the introduction,conclusion,and appendices.The specific contents are as follows:In Chapter I,the development of Chinese feminist film in the new century was introduced.First,feminist films were defined and the scope of the research objective was clarified.Feminist films were produced based on the perspective of women.Female characters undertook the main task of plot development.They reflected women’s joys and sorrows in their lives,described their rejection,marginalization,value and recognition in social relationships,women’s spiritual,material and physiological and other needs were recorded and the ways in which they met them.Second,this thesis took these feminist films as the research object,the influence of cultural industrialization and national propaganda mechanism on the development of feminist films in China was analyzed.With the support of national cultural policies and the opportunity created in the new media era,the number and quality of Chinese feminist films in the new century had changed objectively,and the scope of audiences had been broadened.Third,the influence of international film festivals on domestic feminist films was explained,the cultural phenomenon that some Chinese feminist films were keen to participate in international film festivals was analyzed,and they catered to the aesthetic appeal and values of international film festival audiences.Finally,the expression of feminine consciousness in Chinese feminist films in the new century was assessed,including women’s attention to their spiritual world and needs,as well as the expression of women’s self-consciousness in love,marriage and other gender relationships.Through the above perspectives,this Chapter pointed out the relationship between the development of feminist films,national cultural policies,and the changes of times,and provides reference for the development of Chinese feminist films in foreign countriesIn Chapter II,the narrative time of Chinese feminist films was analyzed by using formal theory.Firstly,it put forward important terms related to the time of film narratives,such as timing,span and frequency,and the basic characteristics of three basic time forms in film narratives — story time,discourse time and screening time were interpreted.Secondly,the narrative methods such as chronological order,analepsis,interspersed narrative,circular narrative,and parallel narrative were adopted in Chinese feminist films;further,it pointed out how Chinese feminist films in the new century develop narratives about kernel events surrounding the development of women’s fate.Depiction was adopted to present the formation of feminine consciousness in the growth of women;flashback was employed to answer the transitions in female characters’ lives;circular narrative was used to express the repetition of dilemmas in women’s lives.Finally,it took three relatively independent plots and the story of four women in the film Jasmine Women as the focus,and the circular narrative adopted in the film was examined.This Chapter explored the relationship between the arrangement of narrative time and the expression of feminine consciousness,clarified that the narratives of Chinese feminist films in the new century were partially inherited from previous feminist films,and had innovation in response to the aesthetic needs of the current audience,furthermore,preliminarily pointed out the advantages of the narrative time strategy of some Chinese feminist films in the new century in the context of marketization.In Chapter III,the narrative space of Chinese feminist films in the new century was mainly discussed.This chapter includes four parts.Firstly,researchers’ application of written narrative space theory in film narrative space and their analysis were presented.By proposing the spatial turn in the film narrative,the types of film narrative space was further investigated,and it is concluded that open space and closed space were more suitable for the study of feminist film narrative space.Secondly,a comparative analysis of the characteristics of urban,township and rural family spaces in the narratives of Chinese feminist films in the new century was carried out.Thirdly,it analyzed the open color added to female film space by the working environment,competitive relationship and urban humanistic environment.The combination of urban environment and modern female characters in the film could create the openness of feminine consciousness.Finally,the narrative space of the film I am not madame bovari was analyzed.The circular frame and square frame used in the film had the function of narrowing the screen picture and focusing the audience’s attention.This Chapter clarified the relationship between the closed narrative space of Chinese feminist films in the new century,male discourse power,traditional morality,and social events.It pointed out the important perspectives of research on "closed" narratives,and then examined the narrative space of some films analyzed in Chapter II,providing the possibility of multi-dimensional research on the narrative of Chinese feminist films in the new century.In Chapter IV,the narrative functions of Chinese feminist films in the new century were mainly interpreted.Firstly,Propp’s morphology of the folktale theory and Li Yang’s research method of folktale morphology were introduced,then the possibility and limitation of analytical functional theory on the narrative of feminist films were analyzed.Secondly,based on the functional division of the texts of 25 Chinese feminist films in the new century,26 cardinal functions of Chinese feminist films were summed up.Thirdly,the free of functional combination and the stability of functional correspondence of Chinese feminist films in the new century were analyzed,four kernel functions — “villainy”,“deficiency”,“difficult task” and “the first functio of the helper” were summarized,and morphological definition of feminist films was concluded.Fourth,it analyzed the “sphere of action” of the dramatis personae in Chinese feminist films in the new century,such as the perpetrators,female protagonists,and helpers.In this Chapter,the cardinal function,kernel function and “sphere of action” of the dramatis personae of Chinese feminist films in the new century were summarized in order to clarify the fundamental differences between the narrative structures of feminist films and non-feminist films,at the same time,it laid a foundation for the study of narrative forms of Chinese feminist films.In Chapter V,the narrative communication process of Chinese feminist films in the new century was mainly revealed.This Chapter is consists of four aspects.Firstly,the viewpoints of artistic creation from the perspective of psychoanalysis were introduced,focusing on the influence of dreams,unconsciousness,and collective unconsciousness on literary creation.From the perspective of "films are dreams",it explained the argument of film psychoanalysis theory on film narrative communication.Secondly,it explored the possibility of feminist film narrative communication from the perspective of psychoanalysis,and pointed out the basic elements of feminist film narrative communication: feminist film text,precise viewpoints,primordial images and ideal communication venues.Thirdly,by using some Chinese feminist films in the new century as example,the influence of director and audience gender,gendered film language,and film market on the narrative communication of feminist films were analyzed.Finally,it unfolded narrative communication process in the film Double Exposure;focusing on the “dream-like narrative” form in the film and the audience’s dual identification with the film roles and Oedipus complex,it further interpreted the similarity between the film and the mechanism of the dream in the narrative communication of feminist films.This chapter pointed out that the narrative communication process of feminist films could clarify the important differences between them and non-female films,and explained why some feminist films in the new century couldn’t create good box office.In this thesis,Chinese feminist films in the new century were explored from the above five aspects.This paper was mainly focusing on their narrative space of Chinese feminist films in the new century,and attempting to make innovation in feminist film narrative function and feminist film narrative communication,combining theory with film text,and finally striving to provide a certain reference value for the study on Chinese feminist film narratives.